"I Want You Back" - Isolated Bass

Staying with our bass theme for the week, here's the isolated bass part for the Jackson 5's first hit "I Want You Back." Although everyone assumes that Motown great James Jamerson played bass on the track, it was actually bassist/saxophonist Wilton Felder of The Crusaders.

1) The sound is typically Motown, even though the song was recorded in Los Angeles instead of Detroit. It's very present with a lot of high end, and the part is very even without sounding too compressed.

2) By today's standards, the track is a little shaky, with lots of little timing mistakes. There's even a couple of mis-fretted notes and a phrase or two that sounds a little tentative. A producer today would not have kept this though, and probably would cut a few takes and then cut and pasted them together, or just move a note here or there.

3) But the feel is great, the song was a hit, so who cares about the inconsistencies.

----------------------------------

Follow me on Twitter for daily news and updates on production and the music business.

Don't forget to check out my Music 3.0 blog for tips and tricks on navigating the music business.

Bootsy's Basic Funk Formula

Staying with our bass theme for the week, here's a funk lesson from the master - Bootsy Collins. Of course, Bootsy came to prominence by playing on some of James Brown's biggest hits ("Sex Machine", "Super Bad") and then with Parliament-Funkadelic before starting his own Rubber Band and Sweat Band.

Even though this is short, it's an introduction to playing funk from the man himself.

----------------------------------

Follow me on Twitter for daily news and updates on production and the music business.

Don't forget to check out my Music 3.0 blog for tips and tricks on navigating the music business.

"Uprising" - Muse Isolated Tracks

Today we'll be analyzing something a bit more modern than usual. It's "Uprising" by Muse, from their 5th studio album The Resistance. This was the first single off that 2009 album, which was recorded in Italy and topped the charts in 19 countries. The single also topped Billboard's Alternative Songs chart for 17 weeks. This track consists of drums, vocals and bass.

1) The bass sounds like a synthesizer that's sequenced since it's so perfect, along with the filter sweep in the middle of the song. Could be a pedal that's manipulated in the mix. Anyone know for sure?

2) Likewise, the drums are pretty perfect and don't vary very much. In fact, it's mostly kick and snare with the occasional crash cymbal that's mixed low.

3) Good sound on the drums though, especially the snare.

4) Excellent vocal sound. It's present yet doesn't seem too compressed. It's mixed back in the mix, which I think is important for a rock band since the band loses some power if the vocal is too loud. Not so on a pop song though.

----------------------------------

Follow me on Twitter for daily news and updates on production and the music business.

Don't forget to check out my Music 3.0 blog for tips and tricks on navigating the music business.

Beatles "You Really Got A Hold On Me"

Here's one last Beatles post for a while. It's an outtake from the Let It Be film that shows them having some fun with a song that they used to do back in the clubs before they even had a record deal.

It's always great to see musicians smiling. It's even better when it's our heros.

----------------------------------

Follow me on Twitter for daily news and updates on production and the music business.

Don't forget to check out my Music 3.0 blog for tips and tricks on navigating the music business.

The Dilemma Of The Studio Business

The graphic on the left represents the dilemma of the recording studio business. It's the legendary Electric Lady Studio's rate card from 1994 and it's evidence why so many legendary studios have been turned into condos.

If you take notice, a lock-out rate (meaning the studio is purchased for the entire day) ranges from $2,500 to $2,800 a day. 16 years later, major studio rates are the same, even less if you get a deal.

Now consider that the 1994 rates were about the same as in 1984 and you can see why being in the studio business is not a way to get rich quickly.

As the joke goes - "How do you make a million dollars in the music business? Start with 2 million."

There was a silver lining back in 1994 though. The studio could make some extra dough on gear rentals and magnetic tape, as well as accessories like DATs, cassettes and automation backup media. Today, thanks to digital files, that extra income stream has fallen by the wayside. Everyone brings their own hard drives and CDs so it's hard to charge extra except for a vintage piece of gear.

That's the reason why it just doesn't pay to get into the studio business on any level anymore. The costs to build the studio are more than ever, the cost of the real estate is still through the roof, and you can't even hope to be paid what studios where making 25 years ago, if you do happen to get a booking with a budget.

So be thankful for the major studios that still exist like Capitol, Oceanway, Henson, Record Plant, Sunset Sound, Avatar, and Blackbird and lets hope that there's enough work left to keep them alive.

----------------------------------

Follow me on Twitter for daily news and updates on production and the music business.

Don't forget to check out my Music 3.0 blog for tips and tricks on navigating the music business.

A Breakthrough In Subwoofer Technology

As I've posted many times before, loudspeaker technology hasn't had a real technological advance in more than a hundred years. Sure, speaker science has evolved nicely to where it's very efficient and linear, but there hasn't been really anything that you'd call groundbreaking in a long time. We've seen novelties like gas modulated lasers, modulated flames, and vibrating membranes (which still might catch on in the future) that I've written about before, but finally there's something new that really shows some outside-the-box thinking.

Eminent Technology's TRW-17 Rotary Woofer (pictured on the left) doesn't have a cone-type woofer or even cabinet; instead it looks like a fan or propeller, yet it reproduces frequencies down as low as 1Hz, and is powerful enough to be heard more than 3 miles away!!!!! High-end subs are lucky to make down to 18Hz, and the vast majority of subs won't even touch 30Hz on a good day.

How does it do it? The TRW-17 really is a constant speed fan, but its blades are modulated up and down and side to side in order to generate sound. It's a wonderfully-simple design that makes you want to hit your head and say, "Doh!" As a result, the transducer (you can't call it a loudspeaker) can push far more air than any speaker/cabinet combination, and that lets it easily reproduce the 11Hz sound of a helicopter's rotor blades, the real infrasonic shock of an earthquake, or the rumble of everyday wind. If this system takes off, just wait and see how realistic movie sound finally becomes, or theme park rides, or war simulators.

The downside? First of all, the TRW-17 Rotary Woofer retails for $12,900, but you have to build it into a room so it acts as an infinite baffle (a totally closed speaker system). Eminent Technology will take care of all that for you and add the amplifier and cross-over network, but it pushes up the price to $25,000.

That being said, numerous audiophiles with too much disposable income have already installed the unit, but so have museum installations like Evergreen Aviation's Titan Missile exhibit and the Niagra Falls Welcome Center (you can see why this unit makes sense for them). It doesn't seem like there are any theater or pro audio installs yet, but expect some as the word gets out.

You can read more on the technology behind the TRW-17 here.

----------------------------------

Follow me on Twitter for daily news and updates on production and the music business.

Don't forget to check out my Music 3.0 blog for tips and tricks on navigating the music business.